What Percentage of Your Church Congregation is Single?
- Thread starter KDW4Him
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Yes singles are generally underrepresented in churches (at least in the 30-50 year old category, not sure about the elderly who may have lost spouses or the college age crowd). But when comparing statistics like this we really need some deeper digging to get an accurate picture. Because we really should be asking what percentage of the singles are in unmarried long term and or live in relationships (so they're pretty much technically single on paper but living like married in practice). We should also ask questions about things like what percent of those singles are at one extreme or the other ( 18 - 20 year olds would be expected to be predominantly single and counting them in the single adults group (especially if they're still living at home and dependent on parents) could give a wrong picture as well ( plus we might forget to count or not recognize them in our own counts of single adults in church).
Perhaps the bigger question is what are we comparing our churches to exactly and why are we comparing them?
Perhaps the bigger question is what are we comparing our churches to exactly and why are we comparing them?
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I found it interesting at a few churches I know the congregation percentages didn't match the population percentages and began to wonder why. I cannot fathom more married people saved than single people saved. But first, I needed to know if this percentage disparity was highly common or rarely common, so I asked here.
PS: my OP says post college age.
PS: my OP says post college age.
H
It’s probably around 5-10% at the churches I have been to. Most churches don’t have a lot to offer single people, and most of the sermons and what not are aimed at married people. I have heard some guys say they are looked at suspiciously when they attend as single guys. I’m not sure how true that is for women. I have read some remarks that married women are afraid single ladies are going to steal their husbands.
No idea about the accuracy of that since it is mostly from reading internet comments or articles directed at single people in church.
No idea about the accuracy of that since it is mostly from reading internet comments or articles directed at single people in church.
Apologize for the Data Dump... It would appear that the data from a 2014 Religious Landscape Study conducted by the Pew Research Center would suggest that Singles (either living with a partner or never married) are less likely to attend religious services than others who are Married, Widowed, Separated or Divorced...
http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/marital-status/
http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/marital-status/
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I think it's pretty common, and if you ask singles who do attend church (which may well have been your intention with this post in singles), you'll find that many singles who do attend church don't feel like there's a good place for them to fit in and be part of the church ( or feel like all their opportunites for involvement are to serve others without receiving any services in return).
I also wouldn't be surprised if marriage was something pursued more often by saved people than unsaved (these days there is barely any stigma left to having a sexual relationship outside of marriage except in the church) which would skew the married numbers in favor of church people. Also it seems a lot of people turn to church when they get married and have kids because they want better for their kids and think church is the place to find that. I'd also suspect that with many churchgoing singles feeling out of place, there are very few singles who start attending church if they didn't already have the habit and believe it's important (and some who decided to quit feeling out of place by not going to church anymore). Those are some of my suppositions as to why, but all I really know for me as a single that would no longer be considered a young adult is that I've stopped looking to church to be the main part of my spiritual life and started wondering how and where I can get involved beyond church and if I'm going to bother doing so.
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